By Michael Joel-Hansen

Municipal Affairs

Province’s municipal leaders set to meet

Feb 1, 2019 | 1:48 PM

Next week municipal leaders from across Saskatchewan will be meeting at TCU Place in Saskatoon to speak about issues important to the province’s cities, villages, towns and northern municipalities.

The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA), annual convention is set to get going on Sunday and is scheduled to continue until Wednesday next week.

A number of issues and items are on the agenda at the convention, ranging from educational sessions on a number of topics, to meetings with provincial government ministers.

The City of Prince Albert will be sending some delegates to the convention in Saskatoon. Part of the delegation will be Coun. Don Cody. Speaking to paNOW, Cody said heading into the convention there is one issue which he believes is especially important.

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“Probably the biggest thing is revenue sharing and I know that SUMA is now negotiating with the government with regards to revenue sharing and a new formula,” he said.

The P.A. councillor said he would be happy to see the funding formula that is in place between municipalities and the province remain.

“I am hoping that the formula we currently have, which is one per cent of the PST remains that way,” he said.

Cody said he would also like to see municipalities get a bigger share of PST revenues as the tax now applies to more items and services than it did before.

Another issue Cody would like to discuss is the current status of the Canada Builds Program, which the provincial government just recently signed onto.

“We don’t believe it’s financed, so if they get that financing done and that will particularly help us in getting some projects going in the city,” he said.

Besides revenue sharing and funding issues, Cody said the federal government’s carbon tax, which will be coming in April, is an issue the delegates will need to talk about.

“The carbon tax is going to be a problem for any and all people,” he said.

Randy Donauer, who is serving as the conference chair for SUMA this year, said municipal revenue sharing is a big issue at this year’s convention, especially with the legalization of recreational cannabis. Donauer said both the federal and provincial governments are collecting revenues from sales while municipalities are left out.

“We’re paying a lot of the bills for rolling it out,” he said.

Donauer said revenue sharing for urban municipalities is becoming more important as more people are moving to cities and towns. According to Donauer, preservation of the current formula, which sees one per cent of PST revenues go to municipalities, is central to SUMA’s strategy.

“We would like to make sure that our portion doesn’t go down,” he said.

The provincial government is expected to announce a revenue sharing agreement in the near future, but Donauer said there is no hard timeline.

“The premier could make an announcement this week, but we’re anticipating it will be in the next few months if it’s not announced at the convention,” he said.

When it comes to the issue of the carbon tax, Donauer said the policy needs to be worked out between the provincial and federal governments. He added the topic will probably come up during certain parts of the conference.

“There is a bear pit session where all of cabinet lines up in front of the room with the premier and any one of our thousand delegates can get up and ask any question, my guess is you’re probably going to see it raised there,” he said.

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn